Nicholas “Axe Man” Walters Vs Miguel “The Scorpion” Marriaga: Are we Going to Get a Real War?

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By “The Aficionado” Alan J. Kindred

This weekend the boxing world may just be in for a surprise treat when WBA “Super” World Featherweight champion Nicholas “The Axe Man” Walters, 25-0, 21 KO’s, defends his championship against little known, but hard hitting Miguel “The Scorpion” Marriaga, 20-0, 18 KO’s. With a combined knock out percentage of 87%, the likelihood of this bout producing fireworks is excellent. It may end up being a fight of the year candidate. One of the most intriguing elements of this fight is that the lesser known Marriaga has known victory over the highly touted Walters in the amateur ranks. A good question is, “Do amateur victories over an opponent have significant impact when facing that same opponent in the pros?”

There are examples of it going both ways. In 2002 super star Shane Mosley was favored going into a match with the late great and former amateur nemesis Vernon Forrest. Forrest had known victory over Mosely in the amateur ranks, particularly when he defeated Mosely for a spot on the 1992 Olympic team. When they met again in the pros Forrest found a way to win again, both in their initial meeting and in their rematch. Forrest just seemed to have Mosely’s number defeating him by decision in both contests. An opposite example is Mike Tyson and Henry Tillman.

This amateur example, also had Olympic implications, and Tillman was able to defeat Tyson twice in a month to help earn him a spot on the 1984 Olympic team. Tillman would go on to win a gold medal. However, when they met again in the professional ranks many years later in 1990, Tyson exacted brutal and violent revenge upon Tillman, by way of a first round knockout. Will the amateur success of Marriaga over Walters translate? We shall see. The word on the street has many boxing people picking Walters in this fight without batting an eye. They can hardly be blamed as Walters has been very impressive as of late, knocking out Vic Darchinyan and Nonito Donaire.

Marriaga is also virtually unheard of by most fans, unless they witnessed Marriaga’s destruction of solid contender Chris Martin last October. It is human nature to side with what they know and what they are familiar with. While Walters is given a lot of credit for blasting out two possible future hall of famers in Donaire and Darchinyan, the truth is, these guys began their careers as Flyweights, and Walters is already a massive featherweight. Will Walters enjoy the same size advantage over Marriaga? I am certainly not diminishing how very good of a fighter Nicholas Walters is as a fighter, I just feel that Marriaga will test him in much greater way than either Donaire or Darchinyan did. This is somewhat due to their amateur history, but also due to size, and the fact that Marriaga is very fresh and at the beginning of his career.

Plus if you saw the Marriaga vs Martin fight you can see that Marriaga is not without his own skills and power. I would label this fight with a possible upset alert, as well as a possible Fight of the Year alert. You do not want to miss the action for this featherweight world championship bout come Saturday night. [si-contact-form form=’2′]